~ Rambling and dabbling in books of all sorts.

Ruby Redfort Take Your Last Breath, Lauren Child

The sun flickered on the ocean, cutting bright diamonds of light into the surface of the indigo water. A three-year-old girl was peering over the side of a sailboat, staring down into the deep. This is the sequel to Ruby Redfort, in which there is more mystery and a lot of deep-sea intrigue. “Everyone’s favorite girl detective is back for a second mind-blowing installment, packed with all the off-the-wall humor, action, and friendship of the first book. This time, though, it’s an adventure on the wide-open ocean, and Ruby is all at sea. . . . Can she crack the case of the Twinford pirates while evading the clutches of a vile sea monster as well as the evil Count von Viscount? Well, you wouldn’t want to bet against her.” I certainly don’t love this series, but it is entertaining and amusing, if very unrealistic. At least, I think it’s unrealistic. There’s nothing wrong with that though. It’s a very fun series, although I haven’t read the original picture books in which Ruby Redfort is first mentioned. To tell you the truth, I didn’t remember much about the first book, even though I didn’t read it that long ago. But still, it wasn’t really necessary. Most of the main points of the previous book were re-summarized, and I quickly remembered the basics (if not the details) of Look Into My Eyes. Spoilers for it are somewhat inevitable. So, the book begins with Ruby, Spectrum’s youngest agent, at a training camp by the ocean. She’s learning to scuba dive. Ruby isn’t afraid of sharks and other sea creatures…at least not yet. She’s all in all enjoying the camp, except for a certain obnoxious officer. Anyway, it didn’t seem realistic to me that a super top secret agency would be training its agents to…scuba dive. I mean, it certainly is a useful skill, but it’s hardly spy-like. Most hard-boiled detective stories don’t occur underwater. That was a bit confusing, but it set the stage for the rest of the book’s mystery, which involves lost treasure (of course), pirates, and deep sea creatures. All a bit over-the-top, you might say, but certainly entertaining.

Both the characters of Hitch and Clancy, Ruby’s two main friends in the know, are very amusing to read about. I particularly like Hitch. Clancy is a bit strange, and the way he and Ruby talk to one another seems very unrealistic for two thirteen year olds. I mean, not many people talk like that anymore. Ruby’s smart, but why must she insist on talking ungrammatically? However, if you just let yourself forget that aspect, Take Your Last Breath is certainly an enjoyable read. Another great thing about this series is that in both books, there are these little recurring things, and the reader isn’t sure whether they’re related to the mystery or not. For example, in Take Your Last Breath, the asteroid, the radio station being disrupted, the strange man hanging around town, and most particularly, the loose clasp on Ruby’s escape watch. I wasn’t sure whether that was incidental or would play a big part in the story later. (Spoiler: It did). This kept me reading, and once you get into Take Your Last Breath, it’s quite suspenseful and quite absorbing. The reader also gets to know Ruby’s parents much better, and become more sympathetic to them. I would definitely recommend it. Read Ruby Redfort Take Your Last Breath: